This week in the classroom - Some the end of Semester 2 activities

Grade 1
Last week the Grade 1 children finally welcomed their longawaited Primary Productions. We were glad to see some wonderful performances with all the children doing exceptionally well. The plays are all performed bilingually, while the clothing, lighting and music were exquisite. The children showed many of the skills they acquired over the past academic year such as collaboration, resilience, inquiry, communication and creative skills. Through this activity, students grew more confident and were more willing to express. They have learned to cooperate and to share.

We can see some of the students’ reflections on their performances last week:

“I really enjoyed doing the performance ‘Snail and the Whale’ because Iris was very funny when she was acting as a teacher and we got to show off our collaboration skills. My favourite part was learning the dance”. – Emilia, 1 Oak

“I loved doing our performance ‘The Cat and the Beanstalk’ because it was so funny. My favourite part was when Wesley had to say his lines and he shouted them so loud.” – Tony, 1 Beech

“My favourite character is Jack. My favourite part was the harp playing.” – Simon, 1 Willow

“Gabriel was so funny in the ‘Gruffalo’ because he was shouting and jumping around the stage. We all had such fun working together and we loved learning the song” – Tobey, 1 Cedar

“I feel proud of myself when I managed to recite such a long script.”- Leonard, 1 Elm

“Though a little bit nervous when performing, I felt satisfied when I got off the stage.” – Anthony, 1 Sycamore

“My parents and grandparents came here. They were all pleased with my performance.”- Eason, 1 Blossom

Grade 2
Grade Two starred in ‘Grade Two and the Magic Key’, a production all about the different thematic topics we have learned this year. Grade Two took the audience to visit the Ancient Mayans, on an adventure under the sea, to visit Willy Wonka’s factory and to see the wonders of Ancient Egypt. The students learned how to project their voices, how to be confident in front of a large audience and how to stay in character.

Grade 3
Grade Three’s end of year production was based around our last thematic topic, ‘Saving the World’. We wanted to share some of the interesting facts and information that we had learned about deforestation, as well as the positive and negative impact humans have on our planet. The students had a fantastic time and worked hard to learn their lines, show expression when talking, and project their voices!

The Grade Three team is so proud of the hard work, dedication and collaboration skills the children had to overcome during rehearsal times. Well done!

Grade 4
Grade four, thoroughly enjoyed learning about the famous English playwright, William Shakespeare, and worked incredibly hard to bring his plays back to life with some fabulous adaptations. From stormy seas, to witches cackling around a spooky cauldron, to men turning into donkeys and a very comedic version of William Shakespeare himself! The audiences were captivated by the performances put on by each class in Grade four. Not only have the students’ speaking, listening and performance skills all greatly improved during the process of rehearsing the play, but they have collaborated beautifully, encouraging and praising each other in such a friendly and supportive way. Every member of staff, who has worked with them on their pieces, is so proud of them and will cherish the memories created through it.

Going to the Theatre is great entertainment and the audience has the opportunity to be transported into another world. The students were able to give this to their parents and friends watching, as they so competently acted out their scenes in both Chinese and English. One parent commented that, “It was such a beautiful morning, and left us with wonderful memories.” We would like to thank everyone who has supported these performances, whether that’s practising at home, creating costumes, listening to the music or many other ways, we could not have done it without you and we are truly grateful to have been able to give these students such an amazing experience.

Grade 5 Graduation Trip

This residential trip has been a huge learning experience for our Grade 5 students. Besides it being a very exciting adventure, the students have learnt a number of key skills which they will be able to use inside and outside of the classroom. The students developed their collaboration in the tree top challenge. At the same time, they hardened their resilience because they did the activity in the pouring rain. Throughout the week, the students were asked to solve problems such as trying to find the best pathway up the steep climbing wall. Ultimately, this trip has been a huge milestone for the students and NACIS. We have all grown together through this experience and we will cherish the memories that we have made in Moganshan.

“I really enjoyed kayaking because I learnt how to steer the boat.” – Yoyo, 5 Willow

“I liked playing lazer tag because it was so fun and I improved my team work. “ – Andy, 5 Blossom

“We liked this trip because we learnt a lot of things about nature. Also, we learnt about how to put up a tent and how to kayak! It also helped us to become more independent.” – Sissi, Alice & Angela, 5 Yew

“In this trip, we learnt to do many interesting things like camping, kayaking and hiking. I feel like our country is very natural. ” – Nick, 5 Oak

“I loved the tree top challenge because I learnt how to travel along challenging pathways.” – Mandy Liao, 5 Elm

Secondary News

Secondary Sports Day

On June 15, finally, we had our Secondary Sports Day…!! A sunny Friday brought an excellent end to Semester Two for our secondary schools students with the much awaited Sports Day!

Events across saw our students perform admirably, showcasing the skills they have developed in their Athletics unit in PE. Students ran 100m sprints and relays, threw javelins and shots as well as long jump and triple jump events over the duration of the morning.

Students were grouped into categories ensuring that every event was evenly contested. As a result we saw a high level of competition, excellent attitudes and motivation for all those performing.

Students demonstrated togetherness and house-spirit to cheer on their respective house-mates throughout the course of the day, participation was cheered and success celebrated! Sports day results will be revealed next week.

The Creative Thinking Maps

Thinking maps are graphical thinking tools created by Tony Buzan, president of the British Minds Foundation. They are used for expressing divergent thinking. They are simple and effective. Recently, our students independently completed their own thinking maps of science units they have learned. We were very pleased to find that many students actively participated in drawing thinking maps. They came up with many wonderful creations. Through this activity, we can see that students have a clear understanding of the structural system of knowledge in science. They set their wits to work and carefully depicted their ideas. Taking a look at different thinking maps, we also found that many students were not confined to writing a rigorous thinking map. Instead, they used the blank parts of the paper to carefully attach paintings related to the unit theme, both imaginative and creative. We saw many excellent works and shared them in the form of pictures. We encourage students to use the thinking maps during their final revision so that they can grasp knowledge more efficiently. We also hope that more students can learn from them and use divergent thinking and learning methods to further their studies.

Music Technology in the Curriculum

Our Middle School students have been combining their Juilliard knowledge and key IT skills in order to compose their own String Quartets. By using MuseScore, students have been exploring how a String Quartet can be made effectively. This will strengthen their understanding of classical music further, whilst also giving them an opportunity to use all of the new Music Technology skills they’ve learned recently.

The use of technology within education is vital in enabling our students to harness their creativity, whilst also allowing them to learn about how to use the different forms of media that have developed in recent years. Such skills are valuable in almost all subjects! Not only is musical creativity a vital part of the Middle School curriculum, but it prepares them for the Music in Grade 10 and beyond! It is fantastic to see our Grade 7 students showing a particular interest into the use of Music Technology to compose.

All middle school classes also recently created their first songs on GarageBand! These songs have demonstrated how our students engage with technology best through play. Students created without limits and were ambitious from the start.

Business Management - Visit to Philips Health Technology

We are delighted that Philips Health Technology, located in Jiaxing, invited our Pre-IB and IB students to visit their business on Friday 22 June. The production facility is responsible for making different products for personal use such as rice-cookers, air fryers, iron steamers and various other products. This was an excellent opportunity for our students to gain a real-life understanding and experience of Operations Management within a state of the art production facility.

In the ‘Operations Management’ part of the Business Management course, studying numerous case studies in a variety of settings plays a big role in helping students understand the application of business theory. Visits to factories or service businesses let students further experience the reality of Business Management.

This last field trip of the academic year was a great conclusion to a successful year of hard work by the students in the Business Management course, and lays a foundation for students to build upon next year as they continue their studies. Such real-life experiences also align with our Approaches to Teaching and Learning that deliver meaningful learning in real world contexts. We encourage our students to take advantage of their time away from school over the summer to actively explore connections between their coursework and the real world.

On June 8, 2018, teachers and students from five schools, including NACIS Shanghai and Minhang Foreign Language Middle School Affiliated to SISU, participated in an interschool activity organized by Minhang District Huacao Political Committee-Internationalized Education Project Team and hosted by Shanghai International Studies University. The activity was called ‘Going Global from English Reading’.

The activity aimed to reward students who performed outstandingly in the English Builder English reading platform in the past year. EB is an English learning software developed by the Hong Kong Smart Gate Group and is designed for bilingual students all over the world. The English teachers from our school regularly arrange online task assignments as a supplementary to students’ English learning.

Two NACIS secondary students, Ian Pan from 8 Yew and Jay Dong from 7 Oak, received the certificates as student representatives. Ian Pan was interviewed by Director Zhong from Smart Gate, sharing his study motivation and experience. Besides, Evian from 11 Blossom, Phoebe from 9 Cedar, Carol from 6 Elm, Elsa from 6 Cedar and Michael from 6 Oak brought a wonderful play to the audience present. We firmly believe that our students will make more achievements by keeping using the software as learning aids.

Nord Anglia International School Dubai’s Visit

On Thursday 21 June, we were glad to welcome visitors from Nord Anglia International School Dubai. Our primary and secondary students showed the visitors around the campus. The teachers and students also participated in a Chinese Culture and Language class, a Guzheng Musical class and a Chinese painting class. They also tasted Chinese tea and some traditional dim sums such as rice dumplings and spring rolls. From this experience, both the teachers and students enjoyed the beauty of Chinese language as well as the profoundness of Chinese culture.

Throughout the day, our students communicated with the NAS Dubai Students bilingually. They have made firm friendship. Although it is only a one-day visit, we are sure that the friendship between the two schools will last forever, and there will be more exchange activities in the future!